Soon after Saturday’s miserable 2-2 draw at Excelsior, a dozen or so new employees of Ajax found out precisely what it’s like to represent the biggest club in the Netherlands.
That extends to newly installed manager Maurice Steijn, director of football Sven Mislintat, and the cosmopolitan posse of new recruits he has spent the summer hiring.
The Amsterdam giants are in the midst of what you’d kindly describe as a transition, perhaps more accurately label a decline – and it’s one entirely of their own making.
The backlash to their draw with the Rotterdam minnows was not a surprise. It comes after a turbulent 18 months that has seen their envied squad dismantled and fundamental change at every level of the club. Often not for the better.
While Ajax are ever only one bad result away from criticism – their ex-players turned pundits enjoy large platforms and are never short of opinions – Saturday’s stalemate was a pointed reminder it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.
“It was frighteningly bad. I’m worried about Ajax,” former striker Marco Van Basten told Rondo, a late-night chat show featuring some of Dutch football’s biggest names.
“It’s really nothing,” he added when asked about the club’s board. “A strange team and a strange club. Because who do you hear now? This is not Ajax. This is FC Amsterdam. In two years it went bad very quickly, that is really bizarre.”
Van Basten’s aim, unsurprisingly, was right on target.
Such dysfunction is especially alarming at a club usually considered a paragon of good practice. In Amsterdam, the Johan Cruyff Institute cultivates football’s future leaders, their alumni including Ajax’s now ex-CEO Edwin van der Sar.
Tonight, the club will get another reminder of just how far they have fallen when they travel to Ludogorets in Bulgaria for their first European game of the season.
They say there’s no sense in being the richest man in the graveyard, or in the case of Ajax, the richest club in the qualifying play-offs for the Europa League’s group stage.
Less than 18 months ago, they started a Champions League last-16 tie with Benfica as favourites, and were considered by many to have an outside chance of going all the way. Three years earlier they’d beaten Real Madrid and Juventus on their way to the semi-finals.
They lost that last-16 clash in Lisbon but went on to win a third league title in four years before manager Erik ten Hag left for Manchester United in the summer of 2022.
The auction of star players began almost immediately.
In the 12 months since, they have brought in around €330 million in player sales – soon to swell beyond €370m once somebody meets their asking price for Mohammed Kudus – but have recruited poorly and have been left with their weakest team in recent memory.
In 2022-23 they finished third in the Eredivisie on 69 points, behind great rivals Feyenoord and PSV, with their lowest total for a season since they last came third, in 2009.
Ajax is a club accustomed to Champions League football and their failure to secure it has left a hole in their budget, one now filled with a portion of the proceeds from player sales, which in turn has impacted their spending power. It’s understandable why some feel the club is in a downwards spiral.
It would be easy to highlight Ten Hag’s departure as a turning point – his successor Alfred Schreuder, now in the UAE with Al Ain, was a disaster, while the next man up, John Heitinga, fared little better – but perhaps a more consequential exit had occurred six months earlier.
In January 2022, director of football Marc Overmars left the club in disgrace after admitting to sending inappropriate material to female colleagues.
It’s a common theme with Ajax fans that while he had to go, Overmars’ acumen in the market has been sorely missed.
It is a slight misconception that Ajax’s success is all down to one of the finest academies in world football.
Elite home-grown talent will always give them a competitive advantage, but the club really soars when this is in harmony with expert recruitment.
It certainly wasn’t lost on Ajax fans that at his next club, Royal Antwerp, one solitary summer transfer window was all Overmars required to lay the groundwork for their first Belgian league title in 66 years.
Last season’s failures prompted CEO Van der Sar to step down before club captain Dusan Tadic, at the age of 34, asked for his contract to be dissolved, the size of Ajax’s rebuild too vast for a player in the twilight of his career.
That meant in just 18 months the club had lost its CEO, director of football, three managers and team captain. The spine of the club disintegrated. Which brings us back to Steijn and Mislintat – and Van Basten.
“If someone leaves or someone is no longer there, there has to be a new one,” the 58-year-old triple Ballon d’Or winner said of the club’s leadership crisis. “Who is Ajax now? Mislintat? Is he Ajax? Isn’t that crazy? At Ajax there must be five, six, seven people who have things to say.”
Ultimately results will speak loudest and Steijn and Mislintat are under immediate pressure to provide them – starting tonight in Bulgaria. Steijn, who spent a spell in the UAE with Al Wahda, must find a way of combining the remnants of last season’s squad with the nine players Mislintat has lured to Amsterdam this summer.
But Van Basten said: “I don’t see good football, no initiative. I don’t see a team that dominates and plays from the back. This is not a team with flair.”
His frustration is obvious – and shared by many supporters. Yet having watched them nosedive from the heights of Champions League knockout football to being the third best team in the Eredivisie, it’s justifiable.
Now they find themselves gambling on some alchemy from Mislintat and that some unexpected treasure will emerge from the academy. It feels like a long road back.
Essentials
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Malaysia Airlines all fly direct from the UAE to Kuala Lumpur and on to Penang from about Dh2,300 return, including taxes.
Where to stay
In Kuala Lumpur, Element is a recently opened, futuristic hotel high up in a Norman Foster-designed skyscraper. Rooms cost from Dh400 per night, including taxes. Hotel Stripes, also in KL, is a great value design hotel, with an infinity rooftop pool. Rooms cost from Dh310, including taxes.
In Penang, Ren i Tang is a boutique b&b in what was once an ancient Chinese Medicine Hall in the centre of Little India. Rooms cost from Dh220, including taxes.
23 Love Lane in Penang is a luxury boutique heritage hotel in a converted mansion, with private tropical gardens. Rooms cost from Dh400, including taxes.
In Langkawi, Temple Tree is a unique architectural villa hotel consisting of antique houses from all across Malaysia. Rooms cost from Dh350, including taxes.
Voy!%20Voy!%20Voy!
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ENGLAND%20SQUAD
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Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
UAE jiu-jitsu squad
Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Alita: Battle Angel
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Stars: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson
Four stars
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Infobox
Western Region Asia Cup Qualifier, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the next stage of qualifying, in Malaysia in August
Results
UAE beat Iran by 10 wickets
Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by eight wickets
Oman beat Bahrain by nine wickets
Qatar beat Maldives by 106 runs
Monday fixtures
UAE v Kuwait, Iran v Saudi Arabia, Oman v Qatar, Maldives v Bahrain
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
